NBA: A night after dropping 50, Melo returns for 40 as Knicks overcome Hawks

What does Carmelo Anthony do for an encore after exploding for 50 points versus the Miami Heat? He goes for 40 against the Atlanta Hawks.

Carmelo Anthony continued his sizzling form of late, dropping 40 markers on 17-of-27 shooting to help put away the Hawks, 95-82, Wednesday (Thursday, PHL time) at the Philips Arena, in Atlanta, Georgia.

[Related: Knicks stretch win streak to nine, as Melo's 50 extinguishes the Heat]

The Knicks stretched their win streak to 10 games, currently the longest active streak going in the league, for a 48-26 record. That put them a half-game ahead of the Indiana Pacers, for the second seed in the East.

Atlanta on the other hand slumped to 42-34, to lie two games out of first-round homecourt advantage in the playoffs, at the fifth seed in the same conference.

A pair of Jeff Teague charities knotted the game at 38-all, 2:41 left in the first half, but a 9-2 run closed out by four from Anthony gave the visiting team a 47-40 edge entering the break.

Five different Hawks chipped in for a 12-3 run midway through the third that armed them with a slight 60-59 lead, but Anthony came to the rescue with six of his side's last nine, to reset the table with a quarter to play.

With the defense keying in on Anthony then in the fourth, Raymond Felton took over, with six straight from the Knicks point guard giving his side an 82-74 lead. An alley-oop from Jason Kidd to Anthony, followed by seven from JR Smith, then sealed the deal, making it 91-77 with 2:43 left in the game.

Carmelo Anthony with 90 points in his last 2 games for @nyknicks - There's a lot of red in his shooting zone chart yfrog.com/5nowisj

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 4, 2013

In addition to his scoring prowess, Anthony added five rebounds and three assists, versus just a single turnover. JR Smith came off the bench for 19 markers, while Raymond Felton had 14 points five boards, three dimes and three steals.

Kyle Korver's outside threat kept the Hawks in the game for the first three periods, and he finished with a team-high 25 points, converting 6-of-10 treys. Jeff Teague had 15 points and nine assists, but a team-high six turnovers.

Al Horford and Josh Smith were held to a combined 19 points on 9-of-23 shooting. - AMD, GMA News